1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital information communication and storage, and more particularly to a system and method for deferring the downloading of data to a client from a network-connected remote service provider.
2. Description of the Related Art
As noted in Wikipedia, a proxy server is a server (a computer system executing an application program) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The proxy server evaluates the request according to its filtering rules. For example, it may filter traffic by IP address or protocol. If the request is validated by the filter, the proxy provides the resource by connecting to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the client. A proxy server may optionally alter the client's request or the server's response, and sometimes it may serve the request without contacting the specified server. In this case, it ‘caches’ responses from the remote server, and returns subsequent requests for the same content directly.
A proxy server may be used to speed up access to resources through caching. For example, web proxies are commonly used to cache web pages from a web server. A proxy server can be placed in the user's local computer or at various points between the user and the destination servers on the Internet. A caching proxy server accelerates service requests by retrieving content saved from a previous request made by the same client or even other clients. Caching proxies keep local copies of frequently requested resources, allowing large organizations to significantly reduce their upstream bandwidth usage and cost, while significantly increasing performance. Most ISPs and large businesses have a caching proxy.
A proxy that focuses on World Wide Web traffic is called a “web proxy”. The most common use of a web proxy is to serve as a web cache. Most proxy programs provide a means to deny access to URLs specified in a blacklist, thus providing content filtering. This is often used in a corporate, educational or library environment, and anywhere else where content filtering is desired. Some web proxies reformat web pages for a specific purpose or audience, such as for cell phones and PDAs.
Conventionally, most systems use rudimentary shared access to download or upload data on behalf of a third party. Typically, a remote service must know the user's credentials prior to connect to an on-line storage system on behalf of the user. The problem is that the user must communicate the credentials to the remote service before, or at some point during the transaction. Since these credentials are stored for future use, and may be used in multiple transactions, they can becomes “stolen”, subjecting the user to unknown liabilities.
It would be advantageous if large data downloads from remote service devices could be deferred, by temporarily storing the data in an on-line storage device.